BIO/MAT 294Quantitative and Reasoning Skills for the Life SciencesFall 2005BIO/MAT 294 Quantitative and Reasoning Skills for the Life SciencesFall 2005Course DescriptionThis course, created by the School of Life Sciences and the Department of Mathematics &Statistics for its first-year undergraduate students, is designed to introduce students to some ofthe basic models and methods of mathematical biology that are not usually seen in standardmathematics courses. This course is designed to provide students with a range of quantitative andreasoning skills for more advanced study in the life sciences. These skills will be developedthrough the study of several biological examples presented as a series of 5 modules. Eachmodule will consist of 4-5 lectures integrated with lab sessions. The lecture sessions willintroduce the biological problem and associated quantitative techniques. The lab sessions willintroduce students to a range of software products available to assist in the application ofquantitative techniques to biological problems such as Maple, Matlab, Mathematica, etc…. andprovide students with an opportunity to develop their quantitative and reasoning skills on actualbiological applications ranging from genetics to ecosystem ecology. At the end of each modulewe will present the results of simple, classic experiment showing how the mathematics actuallyworks to solve real problems in nature. THE COURSE MEETS THE MA GENERAL STUDIES REQUIREMENT.Instructor:Paul VazDepartment of Mathematics & Statistics, PSA [email protected] and Logistics:Credit hours: 3; meeting on TTh from 12:15 pm - 1:30 pm, LSE 236Capacity: 24 Prerequisites: BIO 188 and MAT 117Course Fee required: $50 (for use of CBS Program computer room, LSE 236)Reference Text(s) for course (Recommended):Elementary Statistics by Neil Weiss, 5th /6th editionDiscrete Mathematics and its application by Rosen, 5th editionDifferential Equations by Edwards and Penny, 3rd editionTopics to be presented include:1. Summarizing data2. Probability and random variables / Mendelian genetics and mating3. Graph theory / optimal foraging / patch selection4. Solo and interacting population dynamics This course serves as an excellent introduction, or refresher, of some basic mathematics skills that are needed for the courses MAT 351 and MAT 394 on Mathematics of Genetic